Main menu

Tag Archives: Golden State

A year ago we at HooPs, excited to start the 2013-2014 season previewed and highlighted last year’s season with excitement on the following:
– the Battle in the Western Conference
– Weighed on the chances of the Heat three-peat
– Return of Derrick Rose
– And the draft class of the summer of 2014

Some things haven’t changed and some have.

The West is conceivably just as deep as it was a year ago. There are 7 or 8 teams that have championship aspirations. There may be as many as 12 Western teams that could make the playoffs if they were in the Eastern conference.

Derrick Rose is set to return “AGAIN”. Wish him a healthy season.

The Heat failed to three-peat while The Spurs hoist their 5th championship of the Duncan era. Now on to the 2014-2015 season.

New Faces in New PlacesJeremy Lin in Los Angeles. Chandler Parsons in Dallas. Trevor Ariza in Houston. Jason Terry in Houston. LeBron JAMES BACK IN CLEVELAND! Chris Bosh stays in Miami. Pao Gasol in Chicago. Luol Deng in Miami. Kevin Love in CLEVELAND. Lance Stephenson to Charlotte. Melo stays in New York. Who else of importance? Paul Pierce to the Wizards. And the Spurs still have their big 3 and the best coach in the league. Favorites? Yes!

How the West was WonThe West is better than ever. We say that every year but chew on this. The top 3 teams in the West in no particular order are Spurs, Thunder and Clippers. The next 3 are Warriors, Blazers and Grizzlies again in no particular order. Only 2 of these 6 teams will make the playoffs: Rockets, Mavericks, Suns, Kings and Nuggets and Timberwolves.
It’s possible that 10 teams in the West will have winning records. To get into the playoffs may require 50 wins this season in the loaded West!
(Last year, Dallas won 49 games as the 8th seed)

Opening Night: October 28, 2014Three games slated for Tuesday, 10/28/2014
Magic vs Pelicans
and then 2 games on TNT. First the Mavericks visit the Spurs for a Texas showdown and then the Rockets visit the Lakers in the late night game.
In game 2, Kobe Bryant plays against Dwight Howard and Jeremy Lin plays against his former team.

Championship Contenders

East–

Cleveland. Any team with LeBron James, who is widely regarded as the best player on the planet, is an instant title contender. Now add Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving, Shawn Marion, Mike Miller, Dion Waiters, Anderson Varejao and James Jones. First you had my interest, now you have my attention! (Django Unchained)

All other eastern conference teams are playing for third place with Raptors and Wizards likely to round out the top 4.

West–
Spurs – Embark on their first “successful” title defense.
Clippers and Chris Paul – Hope to get to CP3’s first ever Conference Finals.
Thunder – Plan to weather the storm till reigning MVP Kevin Durant returns.
Warriors, Mavericks, Rockets and Grizzlies – Wish to join the elite of the West and make deep playoff runs.

Let’s get it Started!
Welcome to the 2014-2015 NBA season.
May the best team win!

8 playoff matchups in 48 hours. It’s like Christmas at HoopsReportCard!
This is the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Time to open the best present of all, the most exciting first round matchup this postseason – the battle between the #3 seed in the West and the #6 seed in the West. The LA Clippers vs the Golden State Warriors!

You can get playoff previews from any and every site out there, so lets not breakdown matchups and coaching strategies and bench production and 3 point shooting.
LET’s enjoy TOGETHER the greatness of Chris Paul.
The sharp shooting of Steph Curry (and Klay Thompson).
The emergence of Blake Griffin.
The absence of Andre Bogut.
The insertion of Jermaine O’Neal.
The defense of De’Andre Jordan.Let’s.
Starting today at 12:30pm PST!

News and Notes:

BROOKLYN: the Nets started the season 10-31 and many called for first year coach Jason Kidd’s head. What say they now that the Nets will be the first time since The Kings in 1986 to make the playoffs after being over 10 games below .500 at December 31st.

San Antonio: another 60 win season. that’s 4 (four) for Gregg Popovich. They have the number one overall seed. 15 straight seasons with 50+ wins. From the days of the Admiral to today with Tim Duncan, the Spurs have enjoyed the consistent on court and front office leadership in the NBA in this era.

WESTERN CONFERENCE PLAYOFF RACE:
Dallas & Memphis get the last 2 seeds in the West at the expense of Phoenix who had an awesome season.

On opening night, we learned that the Miami Heat won’t relinquish their crown too easily. After their ring ceremony they triumphed over the Chicago Bulls in Derek Rose’s return.

Also on opening night, the Lakers surprised the Clippers and the entire league by winning 116–103. The Lakers bench put up a statistical anomaly in 76 points with newcomers Xavier Henry, returnee Jordan Farmar and Nick Young shining.

On NBA night #2, Wednesday night, 28 teams were in action with the following notables:

Dwight’s 1st game in a Rockets uniform produced 17 points in a career-high tying 26 rebounds as the Rockets defeat the Charlotte Bobcats.

Mavericks win their first game of the season over the Hawks

Kevin Durant puts up 42 points in a thunder win over the home team Utah Jazz

The Warriors bring the Lakers back to reality with a 125-94 home win. It was a rout from the start with Klay Thompspn scoring a career-high 38 points by shooting 15 of 19 overall field goals and 5 of 7 on three pointers.

Suns beat the Blazers at home to overcome a big game from Damian Lillard.

Pistons defeated the Wizards.

Pacers squeaked by the Pelicans.

And last but definitely not the least, rookie Michael Carter–Williams leading the Philadelphia 76ers in a four-point defeat over the defending champion Miami Heat. As the world knows, he brook several rookie and NBA records by scoring 22 points, 12 assists, 7 rebounds and 9 steals!! “What better way to start your NBA career” remarked LeBron James. I agree. He received praise from many and the likes of Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant. Even I sent him a tweet! Waiting for the HoopsReportCard mention but I digress.

We at #Hoops want to wake up just #ONCE feeling like Michael Carter-Williams feels rt now after 22p, 12a, 7r, 9s last nite! @Sixers@MCW1

Its early but a few teams expected to miss the playoffs that posted huge wins – Kings over the Warriors in a huge home opener. Cavs and Kyrie Irving beat the new-look Nets. The Suns beat the Blazers.

Last night featured only 2 games. The Knicks visiting the Bulls and the Clippers hosting the Golden State Warriors. The skinny? Knicks lose by 1 point. And the Clippers bounce back in a real way again the Warriors putting up 126 points to win by 9 led by Chris Paul’s 42 points, 15 assists and 4 blocks.

At the conclusion of this weekend there will be winning streaks, losing steaks and division leaders. Yes! Already! Basketball is back!

Tonight there are 13 more games. The national spotlight is on the Spurs at the Lakers on ESPN.

After a Friday night of 12 NBA games, let’s reflect — the Miami heat (after 17 straight wins) clinches a playoff birth in the East. But let’s focus on the Western conference, where things are far from settled.

Welcome to the wild wild West. Yes, this is the west. A place that the best team record-wise San Antonio has NOT clinched the playoffs yet. And the worst team record-wise (a tie between Phoenix and New Orleans) has not been eliminated from playoff contention YET.

San Antonio, Oklahoma City and the LA Clippers hold the top 3 spots. Memphis and Denver hold spots 4 and 5 respectively. The tightest race is for the final 3 spots in the Western conference playoff race currently held by Golden State, Houston and Utah for the 6th, 7th and 8th spots respectively.

The LA Lakers are in the 9th slot only half a game (0.5) behind Utah for the 8th and final spot. The door appears to be wide open for the Lakers to snatch the 8th slot from Utah. Utah has lost 3 straight games and 7 of their last 10 as they struggle on the road.

Kobe Bryant aka Black Mamba led the Lakers to a thrilling come-from-behind win against the visiting Toronto Raptors last night with 41 points and an array of impressive 3 point shots and dunks. That’s 3 wins in 4 games for the Lake Show. All 3 come back wins. And the only loss coming against the mighty Oklahoma City Thunder. It’s clear that LA is playing its best basketball of the season. The final 5 weeks to the season will be exciting to say the least as we see who gets in and who goes home.

Utah loses a heart breaker in Chicago when Marco Belinelli sank a 3-pointer with 5.9 seconds left to send Utah to its 3rd straight loss.

The Houston Rockets win a crucial Western Conference matchup against Golden State to win their 3rd straight against the Warriors and move within 1 game of them for the 6th seed in the West. Houston hosts Golden State on March 17 for the final meeting between these two teams this season.

In other relevant news, Memphis beats Cleveland for their 11th win in 12 games. Dallas squeezed by Detroit. And Darren Williams sets an NBA record with nine 3-pointers in the first half and a franchise record with eleven (11) 3-pointers in the game!